Sagacity of the Dog

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 29, 1871

Sagacity of the Dog.

A GENTLEMAN of the name of McLafin, residing in Rockingham County, N. H., a few years ago possessed a dog that was very remarkable for his sagacity. He one day told the dog to go and find a handkerchief which his child had lost in a distant field, while picking berries. The dog started off with his usual alacrity, but in the course of an hour or two he returned without the handkerchief, looking as crest-fallen as though he had been caught in a neighbor’s sheepfold. The master cuffed his ears sharply and told him to go and try again, and not come back until he had found it. The dog started off again with apparent reluctance, while the master followed at a distance behind, and unperceived. The dog went toward a field where the child had picked the berries, and sat down on his haunches, held down his head, and appeared to be in a deep, brown study.

He sat in this attitude for perhaps half an hour, when he suddenly jumped up with a peculiar yell of exultation, and started for one corner of the field. Here he stopped for a moment, and then commenced trotting around the field, going about three feet from the fence for the first time, about six feet the second, and thus continued to near the middle at each succeeding circle. He went round the field about twenty times, when he jumped up into the air with a loud yell of triumph, picked up the handkerchief, and started for home.

The veracity of this narrative may be relied upon. We received it from Mr. F., a Baptist clergyman of great respectability. Now did the dog reason mathematically? Does this go to add proof that instinct is but another name for reason?—Family Visitor.